Korea Investment & Securities has declared its ambition to become the top player in South Korea's retirement pension market, unveiling a complete overhaul of its pension mobile trading system. The brokerage plans to combine the wealth management expertise of its private bankers and its investment banking corporate sales network with the convenience of a mobile platform, aiming to reshape a pension market expected to grow to 1,000 trillion won ($700 billion) within three years.
Korea Investment & Securities held a briefing on its pension mobile trading system at TP Tower in Seoul's Yeouido district on the 6th, introducing the revamped platform and its medium- to long-term business strategy. Kim Do-hyun, executive vice president and head of the retail client group, said the company is concentrating firm-wide resources on the business out of a sense of urgency. "Retirement pensions have already topped 600 trillion won and are expected to grow explosively to 1,000 trillion won within three years. If we miss this, we have no future in the wealth management market," he said. "We have completed our preparations with the ambition of reaching No. 1 in a pension market where we currently rank third in the brokerage industry."
The firm's central weapon is the pairing of private banking and investment banking. The strategy is to link the asset management know-how of private bankers, who have driven the company to the top spot in retail financial product sales balances, with investment banking capabilities backed by a solid corporate finance network, creating a hybrid pension business model spanning both individual and corporate clients. To that end, the company said it has recruited a large number of outside specialists and reorganized its dedicated units.
The mobile trading system, the point of contact with investors, has been transformed from a simple inquiry tool into a digital private banker. A new "My Total Pension Assets" screen gathers all accounts and products in one view regardless of whether they are retirement or personal pensions, while personalized screens tailored to each life stage — contribution, investment and withdrawal — present optimal information intuitively. The platform also immediately flags tasks that need action, such as deposit alerts, investment product recommendations for uninvested assets and maturity management, so that accounts are not left dormant after opening. On the back of aggressive sales and the platform overhaul, daily active users of the pension mobile trading system have risen to 330,000 from about 250,000 at the end of last year. The company's target of 350,000 for this year is now within reach.
The firm has also fleshed out a long-term lock-in strategy to secure a younger subscriber base and retain assets for 30 years, from the mid-30s through retirement. The average age of new defined contribution plan subscribers at Korea Investment & Securities fell to 36 in 2025 from 40 in 2015, a drop of four years over the decade, while the attrition rate stands at just 1.8%. The share of subscribers who receive their pensions as annuity payments, which had remained around 11% over the same period, has risen to 85%. Choi Jong-jin, head of the pension innovation division, said the rapidly declining age of defined contribution subscribers is creating a structure in which customers first meet the firm at 36 and stay together for 30 years until retirement at 65. "We will build a lifetime management system as a comprehensive platform that bundles and communicates pension management that had been fragmented by age and by scheme," he said.
Results are also becoming visible following the introduction of a system allowing retirement pension assets to be transferred in kind. Korea Investment & Securities currently ranks third in the brokerage industry by retirement pension reserves, behind Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Securities, and about 10th among all providers including banks. More than 70% of the in-kind transfers flowing into the firm, however, are coming from banks. Despite recent increases in global stock market volatility, the company said it has detected no reverse money move back toward banks.
Unlike past patterns in which subscribers shifted between banks and brokerages depending on market conditions, the firm believes demand for diversified investment in performance-linked products centered on exchange-traded funds and target date funds has taken firm hold as subscribers' understanding of capital markets has matured. "As the market changes structurally, we need a comprehensive pension platform spanning an entire lifetime, going beyond simply attracting assets or managing returns," Choi said. "Under the motto that there is no retirement for pensions, we will refine a differentiated, customer-tailored platform."
